Réponses des adultes de Lasiomma melania,ravageur des cônes de Larix decidua, à des pièges colorés de différents types

La réponse visuelle des adultes de Lasiomma melania Ackl. (Diptera, Anthomyiidae) à des carrés englués de diverses couleurs ou combinaisons de couleurs a été étudiée durant 5 années consécutives dans plusieurs mélèzins (Larix decidua) des Hautes-Alpes. Une préférence pour le jaune et le jaune à bandes pourpres a été mise en évidence chez ce ravageur dont la femelle pond sur les cônes de mélèze. L'attractivité de chaque type de piège est fonction à la fois du sexe et du stade de maturation sexuelle des individus. La couleur jaune attire en majorité des insectes émergents immatures. Elle semble représenter, selon le plan dans lequel elle est située, un signal nutritionnel de type fleur (plan horizontal) ou un signal de reconnaissance du feuillage de mélèze (plan vertical). Les individus mûrs sexuellement, recherchant les arbres produisant des cônes, sont en revanche capturés essentiellement sur les pièges verticaux jaunes à bandes pourpres. Ceux-ci miment, en l'amplifiant, le contraste de réflectance existant entre le feuillage des mélèzes et les cônes. Ce contraste paraît correspondre à un signal permettant la reconnaisance des arbres possédant des cônes. La ponte est cependant limitée à un stade particulier de développment de ces derniers alors que le contraste est à peu près stable dans le temps. D'autres signaux émis par les cônes, vraisemblablement d'ordre olfactif, doivent guider le vol d'approche et l'atterrissage des femelles.     

Armored dinosaurs(Ornithischia: Ankylosauria)) from the Middle and Upper Jurassic of England

Hitherto the earliest positive record of ankylosaurs(armored dinosaurs) has been from beds well up in the Lower Cretaceous; in fact, however, specimens referable to the ankylosaurian family Nodosauridae are present in the Middle and Upper Jurassic of England: from the Middle Callovian [partial mandible Sarcolestes leedsiLydekker]], the Upper Oxfordian [femur Cryptodraco eumerus (Seeley)), maxilla Priodontognathus phillipsii (Seeley))], and the Upper Tithonian [caudal vertebra, tooth]. The Tithonian tooth and those of Priodontognathus are large and similar to those of the nodosaurids Priconodon and Sauropelta (Lower Cretaceous, U.S.A.). The incomplete mandible of Sarcolestes is similar to that of Sauropelta with a dermal scute fused to the lateral surface, and a tooth row extending to the anterior end of the jaw; an unusual feature is the caniniform first tooth. The quadrupedal ankylosaurs and stegosaurs probably represent separate evolutionary lines that extend back at least into the Lower Jurassic, and both lines probably evolved from ornithopod dinosaurs that were bipedal. Nodosaurid ankylosaurs occur in Europe from the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous and probably reached North America via a filter route in the early Cretaceous.     

Elephas reckiDietrich,, 1915 (Proboscidea,Elephantidae)). Évolution au cours du Plio-pléistocène en Afrique orientale

A revision of the presently available materialrefered to the species Elephas reckiDietrich.. 1915, collected in East african plio-pleistocene levels, leads up to distinguish a succession of five subspecies within the species: E. r. brumpti n. subsp.; E. r. shungurensis n. subsp.; E. r. atavusArambourg 1947; E. r. ileretensis n. subsp. and E. r. reckiDietrich,, 1915.The five subspecies diagnosis are proposed here. They together represent a monophyletic lineage, the study of which allows to propose new interpretations regarding the history and evolutionary trends of the genus in Africa.     

Le Plio-Pléistocène de Camerota(Italie méridionale): Géomorphologie et Paléoflores

Geomorphological investigations have been carried out in Camerota surroundings where marine microfaunas have been discovered. So, we can separate the Late Pliocene deposits from Calabrian and post-Calabrian levels. Preliminary palynological results show a vegetational evolution in relation with the climate. Leaf-remains give informations on the structure of the vegetation.     

Utilitarian art and art-related objects in the Urals’ Palaeolithic

Stone and bone artefacts serving as expedient food-procurement and processing implements are the principal and most frequent findings at Palaeolithic sites. Utilitarian art items, often aesthetically fashioned artefacts, are much less common. Emergence of cognitive art within the broader Ural region was determined by progressive cultural developments and adaptations of anatomically modern human beings to mosaic mountain settings and parkland-steppes. At the Urals’ Late Pleistocene cave sites, objects, which were made frequently of unusual and rare materials and are presumed to be of a ritual nature, are represented by adornments and artworks bearing stylized pictorial images. Zoomorphic figurines produced from flint and mammoth ivory document the high skills of Stone Age artisans. The earliest, utilitarian, art-related works of the Urals include sculptures using natural pre-forms such as river pebbles and animal bones, occasionally ochre-painted or ornamented by incising or engraving. Personal decorations are represented by pendants and beads made of stone, shell, bone, and teeth of animals. Rare exemplars are made from material of non-local provenance, such as petrified wood or segments of fossil sea-lily (crinoids) and are indicators of a broad geographic activity-range and/or regional interactions among local groups of hunter-gatherers. Artisanal instruments associated with rock art, for example, lamps made from stone and clay as well as pieces of ochre, belong to a specific category. Aesthetic-looking minerals with appealing colours and textures, such as serpentine, rock crystal, chalcedony, and jasper, it may be assumed, were intended for religious or cultic purposes, but also may have been curated simply because of their natural rarity. These art-related items likely had symbolic value and spiritual meaning apart from purely decorative function. Understanding utilitarian art objects offers insights to every-day life of the Palaeolithic people of the Urals, and their behavioural and environmental adjustments, which culminated in multifarious, iconographic expressions at the end of the Last Glacial stage.     

Pleistocene herbivores and carnivores from France: An updated overview of the literature,sites and taxonomy

This contribution presents a general account and summary of the research carried out over the past decades on the Quaternary faunas of France. This country is located in the center of Western Europe, and presents distinct topographical features and very varied climatic influences. This paper is the result of collaborative work between French teams and different researchers specialized in the paleontology of large mammals. Over a hundred paleontological or archaeological sites are mentioned in this review, which covers a broad chronological period, ranging from the Early (including the end of Pliocene/Gelasien) and Middle Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene. One of the aims of this work is to present studies of the main families or subfamilies of herbivores (Equidae, Rhinocerotidae, Bovidae [Bovines, Caprines, Antilopines, and Rupicaprines], Cervidae, Proboscid) and carnivores (Canidae, Ursidae, Mustelidae, Hyenidae, Felidae). It is not exhaustive at the generic and specific level, but details on the taxonomic status, evolutionary levels and biochronological importance of the most important taxa are given alongside an extensive and up-to-date bibliography of French works.     

The Oldowan site of Muhkai II,layer 80 (northeastern Caucasus): Spatial structure and cultural and chronological attribution of the lithic assemblage

In 2004–2006 a group of Lower Palaeolithic sites was discovered in the northeastern Caucasus: Ainikab I–VI, Gegalashur I–III and Muhkai I–II. Since then, they have been the subject of comprehensive scientific investigations. One site which is undergoing active research is the multilayered site of Muhkai II. Multiple cultural layers at the site have been found in a 73 m thick sequence of Early Pleistocene sediments. The geological age of the layers encompasses the interval 2.1–0.8 million years ago, or the majority of the Early Pleistocene. Layer 80 of Muhkai II is located in the central part of the section at a depth of −33.6 to −34.0 m. Its significance lies in the fact that the site contains two cultural layers–the upper and the lower (main)–that are preserved in situ or have been subject to minimal fluvial processes. The finds consist of lithic artefacts and osseous faunal remains. According to field observations and microstratigraphic analyses, the cultural layers can be characterised as the ancient surfaces of an occupation area. Two stages of occupation can be defined in the lower cultural layer. Layer 80 of Muhkai II was a periodically visited location at the banks of a waterbody, where the acquisition and butchery of large mammals took place. The faunal collection contains 301 bones, deriving from four carnivorous and six herbivorous species of mammals. The total lithic collection contains 1094 finds. According to typological and technological criteria the lithic assemblage relates to the Oldowan and has analogies with Oldowan sites in Africa (particularly with sites of the Olduvai Gorge as well as others). At the same time, some specifics of the lithic assemblage reflect the uniqueness of the site and its functional type. Layer 80 of the Muhkai II site is estimated to date to within the chronological interval ∼2.1–1.7 mya.     

Gravettian tear-drop-shaped beads

The two regions southwestern Germany and southwestern France have yielded Gravettian personal ornaments in form of tear-drop-shaped beads. We present updated numbers of these artefacts, because during the recent excavations since 2002 in Hohle Fels cave near the city of Ulm, Southwest Germany, additional beads were found. The present paper proposes for the first time a typo-technological study of the tear-drop-shaped beads.